ith
Filipino heroes few and far between these days, the undisputed boxing hero
in the Philippines and around the world,
Manny
Pacquiao took time out of his tight training schedule and flew out to Las
Vegas to endorse U.S. Senator Harry Reid, himself an amateur boxer during
his High School days in Henderson, Nevada.

A bold move for the
freshman congressman from Sarangani, Philippines who despite a large
Republican tilt in the Fil-Am community, has shown that he is as gutsy
outside the ring as he is in the ring. Reid, a longtime supporter of the
Filipino-American community, who sponsored bills to help the Filipino Vets of
World War II, summed it
up best when he said "What makes Manny Pacquiao really tough is, I believe,
because he fights for those who can’t fight for themselves. That's why Manny
is chosen into public service in his home country where he is a member of
Congress."

In a few days
Filipino-Americans will go to the polls to elect a new set of politicians
who will either try move the country forward in a spirit of bipartisanship
or try to shut it down by digging in their heels refusing to compromise on
anything. Sadly, the later seems to be the stated goal of the right-wing
fringe groups as well as many Republicans. GOP stalwarts such as House
Minority Leader John Boehner and Rep. Mike Pence, are on record stating
empathically that they will not compromise, thus almost guaranteeing
legislative gridlock for the next two years.

The Tea Party and their
radical right wing supporters have also been resorting to
heavy-handed bullying tactics in a misguided attempt to intimidate the press
or anyone who happens to disagree with their politics.
Case-in-point
Sara Palin-endorsed Joe Miller hired off-duty military personnel to handcuff
and detain a reporter who's only transgression was a desire to ask the
candidate some tough questions. More recently, a defenseless young woman was
wrestled to the ground and had her head stomped on by a burly Rand Paul
campaign staffer.

Those of us who grew up in
the Philippines know all too well the terror and intimidation that
Philippine elections bring. The triumvirate of guns, the goons, and the gold
that sadly have become a staple of the Philippine electoral scene, are now
rearing their ugly heads in the U.S. As we said in our previous editorial,
of all people, we need to speak up against it as we've been there before. We
know first-hand what it can do to a country. Filipino-Americans must sound
the alarm and warn all Americans about the dangers of extremism and
intimidation during elections. Vote wisely.